lamingtons

Can I be honest with you? I’ve been stuck in a bit of a baking rut. My Mum always talks about things happening in threes, and my three most recent bakes didn’t quite turn out as I’d hoped. First came the Nutella-and-coffee swirled rolls {inspired by this post in time for World Nutella Day} that didn’t prove and sort of collapsed in on themselves. Second was a funfetti birthday cake for one of my housemates – but damn, Mr Sainsbury’s sprinkles are all made with natural dyes, so none of the colour came through in the baked cake. And thirdly, I decided to try out making caramel mud cakes in mini form. You can read about my previous attempt at a mudcake here; they’re made with melted chocolate and take AGES to bake. I thought I could cut out some of the time by making them miniature, but alas, ’twas not to be. They still took well over an hour, and by the end, I had no idea if they were cooked properly or not.

Anyway, that’s my pity party out of the way. I’ve got a loaf of bread proving downstairs and I hope that it’s going to be just the thing I need to break out of this curse 😛

I’m finally getting round to sharing a recipe with you that I made last month for Australia Day. I’m immensely proud to call myself an Australian {as well as a Brit, I’m lucky enough to be a dual national} and I take any opportunity to celebrate it! However, whilst all my family over there were enjoying summer days at the beach and BBQs, I was drinking Milo and making lamingtons over here in the cold! Lamingtons are a traditional Aussie favourite. They’re small pieces of vanilla sponge cake, coated in a layer of chocolate icing and rolled in dessicated coconut.

Ingredients:

Sponge cake:

Icing and decoration: {these measurements are all approximate, as I didn’t write down exactly how much I used – sorry!}

35g butter

400g icing sugar

50g cocoa powder

hot water

dessicated coconut (at least 1 cup)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a rectangular baking pan with greaseproof paper.

Melt the butter and allow it to cool.

Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together in a mixing bowl for 3-5 minutes.

Sift together the flour and baking powder a couple of times and fold gently into the egg mixture.

Slowly add the melted butter and mix through. Be careful not to knock out too much air.

Put the tray into the oven and bake for 25 minutes – until golden on top.

When cool, cut the sponge into small rectangles. If the edge pieces aren’t completely rectangular, you can discard them/use them to appease hungry housemates.

Mix up the icing by melting the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Add the icing sugar and cocoa, a little at a time until the mixture becomes saturated. Add a little water to thin it out and mix well. You can adjust the amount of cocoa to taste. Keep adding ingredients until you have a relatively thin, chocolate icing. I don’t tend to measure out icing ingredients – just go by the texture and taste.

Pour the coconut into one bowl, and the icing into another. Set up a rack over some greaseproof paper where you can leave the finished lamingtons to dry.

One by one, completely coat the cakes in chocolate icing, and roll them in the coconut. Enjoy with a mug of Milo and an Australian movie (optional).